Modi, Nehru, Indira Gandhi

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14 Sep, 2014, 03.59AM IST Post a Comment

Connecting with children and taking charge of foreign policyare the only similarities between India’s first PM & thepresent. In fact, Modi may be closer to Indira Gandhi.

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Comparisons with Nehru & Indira Gandhi inevitable; but PMModi is his own person

By: Neerja Chowdhury

Ever since he spoke to lakhs of children on Teacher's Day, many are suddenly seeingreflections of Jawaharlal Nehru in Narendra Modi.

One of the reasons being that like Nehru, Modi was able to connect with the children allover the country. After his initial remarks, he suddenly came to life interacting with them,shedding fatigue, smiling, laughing — a visage not seen often — talking like a friend,philosopher and guide about a whole host of issues, including his pranks, bringing to forea "cool" side (in the words of a child) of Modi.

And telling a Manipuri child who asked him how he could become prime minister — that heshould prepare for 2024, for there was no chance till then, as Modi saw no threat tohimself!

Nehru's connect with children earned him the title of Chacha Nehru. Soon after he becameprime minister, he opened the doors of Teen Murti House, his residence, to children, givingexplicit instructions that they be allowed to use the spaces there to play. Even APJ Abdul Kalam used to encourage visits by children toRashtrapati Bhavan during his presidency.

Catch 'em Young

When Nehru talked to youngsters, he would invariably use the occasion to educate.

So also seems to be the case with Modi, and some have questioned whether being a teacher is a role a prime minister should play whenhe has his plate more than full. Others saw it as a far-reaching political move by the new PM. The senior amongst the children headdressed, and this is now going to be a yearly event, would become voters in 3-4 years time and are an important catchment area,particularly for a prime minister who has already declared that he is looking at a 10-year term, at least!

I still remember, as a child, when Nehru had come to our school in Delhi to speak on our Founder's Day, and he had chosen to speak onthe country's foreign policy.

Most children are unlikely to forget an interaction with the prime minister, though the children in the south had problems understandingModi's conversation conducted in Hindi, and it might have been better had parts of it been translated into English, particularly when Modiwould like to avoid a north-south divide, and his protege, now BJP president Amit Shah is understood to be learning Tamil and Bengali!

Whether it was through the red and green turban he sported at Red Fort on Independence Day or his confident step on Japan's soil,Modi has given early signs of exuding a consciousness that he leads over a billion people today. Nehru, it is well known anddocumented, strode the Indian — and world — stage like a colossus for several decades.

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Foreign Affairs

The other similarity between the two that has invited comment is about both taking charge of foreign policy. Nehru was his own foreignminister for all the 17 years that he was PM. It is early days for Modi, but many have been surprised at the ease with which he has takento foreign policy issues, and the direction he is giving them, from the day he took over.

This was reflected in his decision to invite Saarc leaders, including the Pakistan PM to his swearing in, and this entailed a risk. HadNawaz Sharif turned down his invite, it would have been seen as a snub by the hardliners in his own ranks — and therefore a less-than-confident start to his premiership.

Nehru's world view had been fashioned right through the days of the national movement, which was also a period between the two worldwars, and he had acquired an international perspective through his travels to countries of Europe, the then Soviet Union, China and theUS in the '30s and '40s. From the beginning he saw Indian independence in the larger context of an "Asian resurgence", and he morethan others in the Congress, came to fashion the policy non-alignment as the best way to go forward for a poor, yet large, country likeIndia to acquire its rightful place globally , rather than to align with either of the two blocs.

Modi on the other hand has come to South Block from a regional capital with experience of running only one state of India. Peopleexpected him to take time to transit from a chief minister to a PM, particularly on foreign affairs. But Modi has taken to foreign policy, likeduck to water.

Foreign policy is a continuum and does not change with a change of government. Just as Nehru left his stamp on it, there are earlyindications of a nuanced shift being made by Modi. Unlike the UPA's America-centric focus, he has given primacy to the neighbourhood— his early visits to Bhutan and Nepal and his invite to Saarc leaders bear this out — then to Asia, Japan first and then to China, withwhich the relationship is more complex; and then to the West and America where he will meet Barack Obama.

The reason why the world is looking at India and Modi with new eyes is the transformed situation in the country. It is the clear mandatethe people of India have given Modi, giving his own party a majority after 30 years of coalitional governance, and the political stability thatit connotes, which is making world leaders beat a path to India's doors.

Dismantling Nehru's Legacy

The Nehru-Modi comparisons, however, are only at the superficial level. Both represent two contending ideas of India, though theCongress is too demoralized today — and at one level also confused on some of the ideological issues — to go to town on what it standsfor.

If anything, Modi has hardly shown an enthusiasm for Nehru, and the BJP and RSS have an aversion to anything Nehruvian.

The PM did not even take Nehru's name during his first I-Day speech. He struck statesman-like notes when he talked of all governmentshaving contributed to the development of the country and during the course of his speech referred to many a leader — Gandhi, Patel,JP, Lohia — who had taken the country to great heights. But he left out Nehru. Agree or disagree with him, Nehru was among thebuilders of modern India.

Beca


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use of opposition to Nehru, the PM may have chosen to speak on Teachers' Day, and not on Bal Divas, which might have been a morenatural occasion. But then using November 14, which is celebrated as Children's Day because it is Nehru's birthday, would have madethe exercise a continuation of the Nehruvian convention.

The Planning Commission is not part of the BJP's scheme of things but the decision to "scrap" it was essentially because it was aNehruvian relic. After all, if the country has to go for bullet trains, and smart cities, industrial corridors and new infrastructure, that cannothappen without planning.

The government proposes to create an alternative structure. But reforming an existing one is always easier than reinventing the wheel.By opting to do away with it, Modi was clearly making a political point about bring down another edifice of the Nehruvian period.

Many prime ministers have been their foreign ministers, whether or not they held the portfolio themselves. Like Narasimha Rao. Hefashioned India's foreign policy in the crucial years following the breakup of the Soviet Union when India opted to globalize in a worldwhich had become unipolar, and moved from multilateralism to bilateralism, to a greater focus on economic relations in foreign affairs,and a "Look East" policy. Even the "weak" Manmohan Singh enhanced the relationship with the US with the Indo-American civil nucleardeal on which he staked his government.

Modi is not cast in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee mould. Vajpayee was the moderate face of the BJP, Modi is its hawkish face. Modi is handson. Vajpayee used to leave most decisions to his principal secretary Brajesh Mishra.

The Original Iron Lady

If Modi can be likened to a PM, in his style of functioning, it is not so much to Nehru or Vajpayee as to Indira Gandhi. She may havestarted off as "gungi gudiya" but Indira came to be described as the "only man in the cabinet".

In just over three months, Modi is not just the "first amongst equals" that a prime minister in our scheme of things is supposed to be, butis already head and shoulders above his other cabinet colleagues. The home minister, for instance, was not allowed to have thesecretary of his choice.

If reports — which have not been rebutted — are to be believed, the home minister is out of the process to decide the appointments as amember of the Cabinet Committee on Appointments, but is now informed about it afterwards, when the PM has decided. The PMundertook a highly successful visit to Japan which upgraded the relations between the two countries, but strangely Sushma Swaraj, theforeign minister was not part of it, whatever the reason. This has raised questions whether we are functioning in a presidential form ofgovernment or a cabinet system.

Like Modi, Indira was also a polarizing personality. Like Indira, Modi too has a style which likes to control. Like her, Modi too went over thehead of the party to create a direct connect with the masses. Like Modi — who has bought his trusted people from Gujarat into the PMO— she used to preside over an all powerful PMO, that decided all major decisions, whether it was to do with bureaucratic appointments,intelligence gathering, or the judiciary. There are early signs of all major decisions getting routed through Modi's PMO. Like Indira, Moditoo has a less-than comfortable relationship with the media.


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One of the early but visible signs of change is a drying up of information sources. In the past, whether during the UPA or the NDA rule,BJP leaders were easily accessible and forthcoming about the goings on in government and the party. Today they give media persons awide berth, unless authorized by the powers that be to talk to the media. The PM has been taking only the official media as part of histeam when he has gone abroad.

During Indira's time, or even in the first two years of the 415-MP-backed Rajiv Gandhi government, reporters had to hang around theCongress office for the one sentence that a leader coming out might utter about the goings on inside! In Indira's case, when the courtsdisqualified her from parliament in 1975, she went to the extent of imposing an internal emergency, leading to media censorship, andabridgement of basic freedoms. Ironically, it is coalition governments, and the "leaks" they encouraged, which increased media's accessto information.

Every prime minister's style of functioning is bound to find some resonance in the past, by way of comparisons to his predecessors. Butat the end of the day, Modi — as were Nehru, Indira or the others — is his own person.

(The writer is a political commentator)


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Modi, Nehru, Indira Gandhi